Mai ka 'aina 'e mai Kelikoli (Foreign Territory)
by brandtfan
Summary: When Danny took Grace to see her favourite boy band that night, he knew he'd be out of his element. But what happened turned into something no one could have predicted. But who's behind all this chaos? No slash, just some good old fashioned bromance. Appearances by just about everybody-Grace, Kamekona, Max, Fong, Mary Ann, Catherine.
1. Chapter 1

This story ( in many parts.. ) has been kicking around my computer for a long time now, so I thought I'd finally get around to start posting it.

It's a case fic with a healthy dose of character stuff too. Hope you enjoy, and please read and review! :)

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"All I'm saying, Monkey, is that when I was going to see my favourite bands, you didn't need all the flashy lights and cute European accents to sound good, okay." Danny said to his daughter as they waited their turn at the concession stand at Aloha Stadium. "And they certainly didn't have these dance routines, even when the band is five young guys. I mean, what is that anyway?" He continued ranting as they approached the counter.

"I'll take a popcorn, a pack of licorice, and a giant peanut butter candy bar, please." Grace asked the clerk, happy for the opportunity to stop her father's rant about her favourite band, who she'd managed to sweet talk him into taking her to see that evening.

Danny looked from his daughter to the clerk behind the counter, surprised at her order. "Grace, you hiding three more of your friends in your little purse there?" he asked rhetorically. "I mean, do you think you've got enough with the popcorn, candy, _and _chocolate already?" he inquired, although he was already reaching for his wallet.

Grace looked from the concession counter to her father. "You're right, Daddy." she replied. "I'd also like an extra large grape slurpee," she added looking back at the clerk, completely serious.

Danny chuckled. "Woah, okay there, babe." he put his hand on Grace's shoulder and looked at the clerk behind the counter. "We will take a small popcorn, a regular size candy bar, and a medium slurpee, please." He smiled as the guy shrugged his shoulders and complied.

"Aww, but Danno.." Grace started, in a bit of a whine.

He turned to her. "Gracie, you know what your mother will say if I bring you home so full of sugar, not to mention the fact that I paid a disturbingly large amount of money for these tickets, and even though these kids are no Sinatra or Bon Jovi, I don't particularly want to spend half the night crowd surfing to get you to the bathroom every ten minutes after something like an extra-large slurpee, okay?"

She sighed and nodded. "Okaay."

"Alright, good." He said a quick thanks and paid the concession clerk and handed Grace her snacks. "Let's go find our seats so we don't miss any of these boys matching outfits and dance moves, huh?" he couldn't help but laugh as he heard himself say that out loud. The only thing more embarrassing than catching himself say something like that, he thought, was if his partner were there to tease him about it the entire time. But thanks to a little white lie Danny had told him about the concert being sold out, SuperSEAL Steve wouldn't have a clue Danny and Grace where ever there in the first place.

"Daddy, what's crowd surfing?" the ten year old asked, as they walked back into the main stadium area.

"Uhm," Danny sighed. He was reminded of what crazy teenagers will do, and of how scared he was of the next eight to ten years of his daughter's life. "It's something that only crazy people do, okay Monkey, so don't worry about it." he looked at their tickets and then to a row of seats. "Row W, this is us, c'mon Grace, we're way over at the other end of this row, let's go." he said, ushering her in front of him down the row of seats. Selfishly, Danny was relieved when he learned that the only tickets left when he bought theirs were nosebleed. He knew Grace would still have fun, and he wasn't sure he could take two hours of screaming girls pushing their way to the pit to be oh so close to their teen heart throbs anyway.

It was only a few minutes after they were settled into their seats that Danny spotted him. It wasn't like the Hulk sized Hawaiian would be hard to spot in a group of tween girls, but it still took Danny by surprise.

Seeing Kamekona right in the middle of the sea of girls waiting at the front of the stage was not something Danny thought he'd see that night, that was for sure. And he certainly didn't expect to see the next familiar face a few minutes later, either.

"So which one's your favourite?" Steve asked, a sly grin already all over his face as he sat down in the empty seat next to his partner. "You like the Irish one, right Danno?" he continued with the grin getting even bigger, grabbing a handful of popcorn and popping it into his mouth at the same time.

"That's very funny, Steven." Danny replied, as he silently had a couple words with whatever power-that-be that put him in this bizarre situation. Grace said a very happy hello and gave Steve a hug while Danny was putting his snappy retort together.

"Tell me, what exactly are you doing by yourself, at a concert designed for young girls?" he asked. "Because I am here with Grace, but you don't have a young daughter, so that isn't creepy at all, is it?" he shot back.

Steve smiled again. "For your information Daniel, I'm not here alone. I'm here with someone who has moved past the physical stages of being a tween, but not so much on the emotional side." he laughed, lapping up every second of Danny's clear discomfort at the situation.

"Well, that's a very nice thing to say about your girlfriend," Danny chuckled sarcastically, thinking he'd gotten his good friend in a point.

Steve shook his head. "You know she's not my girlfriend," he started. And not Cath," he motioned down to where Danny had spotted Kamekona a few minutes prior. He was still standing in the same place. "The big guy can't get enough of the ballads, he cries like a baby every time he hears that stuff."

Even though Danny still wanted to be annoyed with his partner, he couldn't help but let out a little chuckle. "So what, he brought you as a shoulder to cry on when he starts crying like well, a twelve year old girl?" Danny didn't really mean what he was saying about Kamekona, but he figured their informant turned friend had gotten out enough haole wisecracks at him that he deserved a little ribbing back.

"Actually," Steve replied, "He has some connections and got us not only pit passes, but backstage passes too." His face was almost getting sore from all the smirking and smiling he was doing at the expense of his partner and friend. Almost, though.

"Whoa, what kind of connections are we talking about?" Danny asked with some concern in his tone, knowing enough about Kamekona's past.

"Relax, Danny." Steve replied. "The guy that makes his Shave Ice tee shirts also makes the shirts for this band, that's who he got the passes from." He looked at Grace again. "And I came with him because I was going to get a bunch of tee shirts and autographs from the band for Gracie, since you told me the show was sold out and she was going to miss her favourite band being on the island." He smirked again, knowing that he was continually one-upping Danny each time. There was never a lack of good natured competition between the two friends.

Grace gasped. "Really?!" She jumped out of her seat and practically jumped over her father to give him a big hug. "That's so cool!" She said, finally loosening herself from around his neck.

"Oh, don't thank me yet," he replied, smiling at Danny once again as Grace climbed off his lap. He looked way down at where Kamekona was standing, and then back to Danny and finally to Grace.

"Oh, no, no," Danny shot Steve an 'if looks could kill' face, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

"Gracie, how would you like to come way down there, to the very front of the stage with Kamekona and me for the concert, huh?" The entire time he was talking, Danny was behind Grace giving Steve every kind of silent signal imaginable that meant no. Steve knew what he was doing and ignored him, knowing it'd drive him crazy.

"Yeah!" She shouted, clearly extremely excited about the idea. "Thank you so much Uncle Steve!" she jumped up again for another hug.

"That is of course, if Danno says it's okay," Steve said, knowing exactly what he was doing.

Danny was still giving his partner the look of death right until his daughter turned back around to face him. "Can I please go, Danno?" she asked, with the biggest, most beautiful eyes he'd ever seen. And most difficult to say no to, he realized. With her mother's eyes coming in at a close second.

He let out a big sigh, and looked from his daughter to his partner. Knowing that Danny was scared, or rationally concerned, Steve spoke up before Danny could. "I'll make her hold mine or Kamekona's hand the whole time, and I will protect her from getting stepped on or anything else, I promise." Danny still wasn't pleased with the idea, but he knew he couldn't really say no to his Monkey. And he knew that if she was safe down there with anyone, it was with Steve.

"Okay," he said, as the lights flickered, indicating the show was going to start in a few minutes. "But if you come back and so much as a _hair _is out of place," he warned, but was cut off by Steve.

"You're over reacting, Danny." he gave his friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder as Grace gathered her snacks up. "If I can handle armed and dangerous international fugitives, I think I can handle some screaming tween girls."

Danny shook his head and smiled, realizing Steve didn't really know what he was getting himself into with the large group of screaming tweens. Finally, a point for Danny, he thought. He gave Grace a quick kiss and told them he was going to head out then, rather than sitting there alone. Steve agreed to drop Grace off at Danny's when they were finished meeting the band after the show, and then disappeared through the rows of seats with Grace. Since they weren't going to use them, Danny offered their seats to the people behind them and then headed out to his car in the parking lot.


	2. Chapter 2

Danny got into his car and had driven a few blocks when he decided he was going to call Chin to see if he wanted to grab a Long Board at the Hilton. He didn't need to though; he realized when his phone rang a minute later. "Hey Chin, what's up? I was just going to call you." he said to his friend and team member.

"How's the concert brah?" he asked, with a small chuckle.

"Oh, actually it's going pretty great." Danny replied.

"Grace having a good time?" Chin asked, and then continued. "It sounds really quiet at your end, Danny. Did you find refuge from the screaming girls outside or something?" He teased.

Danny sighed. "No, even better actually. I was heading to the Hilton for a drink and thought you might like to join. And Grace is having the time of her life, thanks to SuperSEAL and his sidekick, World's Largest 12 year old girl." he grinned to himself in the car.

"Uhh, okay then." Chin really didn't know what to say, so he segued to his reason for calling. "Are you saying that Grace is with Steve at the concert? 'Cause he isn't answering his phone and we have a case."

"Oh," the New Jersey native said, as he changed his driving route to drive back to the Stadium. "It's a long story, but let's just say that he probably has no idea his phone is even ringing, whether it's because of the music, or the other screaming girls in the pit is anyone's guess, but my money's on the girls." He took another left, which meant he was only a few blocks from the Stadium once again. "I'm heading back to get him now, you want us to meet you and Kono at HQ then?"

"Actually," Chin stated, as Kono walked into the office behind him. "Kono's here now, and we'll meet you at the Stadium. The case is right there. Somebody working at the concert tonight called in a body outside one of their equipment trailers."

Danny tossed his hands in the air as he was stopped at a red light the block before the Stadium. "That's just great," he said. "This will go really far in helping me convince Rachel that danger doesn't follow me and that Grace is perfectly safe here with me on the island." he let out a giant sigh as the light turned green. "Alright, I'm pulling into the parking lot now; I'll find Steve and meet you guys in the front."

Chin agreed and the men hung up. Kono was standing at the opposite side of the smart table to her cousin. "That isn't going to help him convince a judge that he should get custody of Grace either," she said, sadly. She too let out a sigh and asked Chin what they had so far.

"A call came into HPD about half an hour ago, the caller reported finding a body when he was going over some of the band's gear in their equipment trailer."

"Okay," she replied slowly. "Why did HPD call us in?"

"Actually, HPD called Governor Denning, who called McGarrett, and when he couldn't get McGarrett, he called here and I was still here finishing up some stuff, so he got me." he answered. "Turns out, Steve is already at the stadium with Grace, and whoever Danny meant by 'the world's largest twelve year old girl."

Poor Kono wasn't any less confused, which was obvious by the look on her face. "Yeah," Chin continued. "He lost me there, too. But we were called in because, everyone that came with the band and crew is MIA, and they are the only ones who had access to the loading and unloading bays of the stadium."

"So, do we know who placed the call?" she asked.

"No, we know it came from the stadium, but the voice was distorted, and of course they didn't give a name." he explained.

"So are we thinking it's someone travelling with the band?" she asked.

"Yeah, which means,-" Chin started.

"In a couple hours when the concert is over and the band is gone to their next city, so is our killer." Kono finished for him.

Chin nodded. "So we've gotta find him before that happens. Let's go, Max and Fong are already on their way." Kono nodded as they headed towards the big glass doors out of their offices.

Meanwhile, Danny could not believe what he was about to do. Getting to the front of the stage by trying to meander his way through some boy-crazed girls was not how he saw spending his night. But, he had no choice. Finally, after getting elbowed in the side for what felt like the tenth time, he spotted Steve with Grace and Kamekona right beside them, singing along as much as the other girls.

"Steve!" He called out from behind, but quickly realized he had no hope of being heard. He grabbed his friend's elbow to get his attention.

"Stacy, for the last time! You-" Steve turned around, stopping his sentence when he realized it was Danny, and not the same young girl who'd been trying to cling to him since the show started. "Danny," he yelled as loud as he could. "See, I told you Grace is fine with us," he smiled.

"Steve," Danny also yelled. "We have a case," he said as loudly as possible. "Get Grace and the big guy, we gotta go!"

"What?" Steve yelled again, unable to make out what Danny had said. Thankfully, the band had just finished up a song, which left them with a few seconds to communicate at an audible level.

Danny was especially glad, because he didn't want to yell that a body had been found outside, just in case anyone around them could in fact hear him. "We have a body, outside, here. Chin and Kono are on the way, so we gotta go," He motioned to his daughter and Kamekona as well.

Steve looked over and saw both of them shedding a tear as the next slow song started. He sighed and looked back at Danny, who had also noticed the waterworks. "Go get the stadium manager and whoever's in charge of this show," he ordered his partner. "I'll get them out, and meet you in the lobby."

Danny nodded and reached over to give Grace a quick hug. He couldn't believe he was in another situation like this, where his daughter was among the large group of people who could potentially get hurt if things didn't go smoothly.

He sifted his way back through the crowd and out to find Chin and Kono. "Okay, so what do we know?" he asked the cousins.

"Max is at the crime scene," Kono explained. "His preliminary observations revealed the deceased was a victim of an electrocution via ultra-magnetic current." Garnering a couple curious looks from her fellow team members, she shrugged her shoulders with a tiny grin. "Word for word what Max said. It _is_ Max, you guys." They all nodded in agreement, before Danny spoke once again.

"So we need to get the tour manager out here as soon as possible so we can stop this whole crew from leaving tonight." he said as he got his ear piece in.

"Only one problem," Chin stated. "We called on the way over after we talked to Max, and the band's manager has a strict no visitors or phone calls policy while his group is on stage. Says he has to focus on their every move, so they can study their mistakes and become better performers," he finished, rolling his eyes.

"Wow, okay." Danny said, taking in the information. "That doesn't sound suspicious at all," he continued as an idea came to him. He looked at Kono. "Have you ever wanted to be one of those groupie girls who sneaks backstage at a concert?" he asked her.

Kono chuckled. "Not really, but when in Rome," she gestured to the general concert atmosphere. "Or should I say, tween girl Heaven?" she smirked as Steve, Kamekona and Grace walked up to them.

"Ahh, world's largest twelve year old girl," Chin smiled as Kamekona blew his nose into a tissue. Him and Danny shared a quick laugh as Steve got his ear piece set up and asked Chin what the situation was.

Danny leaned over to Kamekona. "Big guy, if you can keep it together long enough, can you take Grace back to my place until all this blows over? We, uh, have a situation here and I don't want her, or you, for that matter to get anywhere near it, okay?"

The native Hawaiian took a second to compose himself. "Sure thing brah. Maybe we can listen to her CDs, talk about our favourite songs." he smiled.

"Sounds like fun," Danny nodded. He bent down and apologized to his daughter for interrupting her concert, but promised to make it up to her, as he always did. They shared a hug, and after hugging Steve once more, her and Kamekona were heading out to his jeep.

"Okay," Steve said as he put his hands together. He was briefed and ready to take control of his team now. "Kono, see if you can get around the crew, and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Keep us in the loop with whatever you find. And if you find them, do not go in alone, okay? Let me know, and we'll back you up. " She nodded, putting in her ear piece. "I'm going to go buy a t shirt or something, you know, to look the part."

"Good thinking," Steve nodded. "Just be careful, okay?" he wanted to stress it to her.

"Don't worry boss," Kono smiled as she started towards the merchandise stands. "I'll be fine." She waved as she took off for the hallway that led to the backstage area. Steve was always conscious of the fact that Kono was still technically a rookie. It wasn't too difficult to overlook that though, considering how good she was at her job. Still, he always felt the responsibility to protect her a little more strongly because of her inexperience.

"Chin, we need to get all these people moved out of the stadium." Steve continued as Chin nodded. "Find the stadium manager and come up with something to get all these people out with as little panic as possible. A crowd this size, the last thing we need is mass confusion and fear mixed together."

"Wait," Danny spoke up. "Um, did all that screaming inside affect your risk reducing skills?" he asked. "Because, for all we know, our killer could have blended back into the crowd. So, I'm thinking if we evacuate the crowd, we are basically giving our guy his ticket out of here."

Steve looked at his partner, thinking. "Okay, first of all, Danny, I'm pretty sure that the only way our guy could blend into the crowd without being noticed easily, is if he was a twelve year old girl. And I'm no detective, but I don't think a tween girl is behind this." he stood with a hand on his hip, the other one waving as he spoke. "And second, do you have a plan to interrogate every one of the two thousand plus people here tonight? 'Cause, I think by the time we do that, our guy could have swum to the mainland from here."

"That's funny," his smaller blond friend replied. "And yes, unlike you, I do have a plan, thank you. You see, unlike you, I believe in back up. This is why we have dozens of very capable HPD officers, Steve. They are highly trained to interrogate people, so you could even call them a backup plan, if you so choose." he smiled.

"Yeah." Steve replied. "And if he's not in the crowd, and opens fire on the place while we are hunting him, how long do you think it'll take that 'back up' to tell all those parents their children were shot, hmm?"

"Whoa, there Rambo, who said anything about guns? You heard what Max said, the guy was electrocuted. Why do you jump to the conclusion that our guy has a gun?" he was talking in a very animated way, thinking about his strong views on gun control. "Newsflash, my friend, not everyone is like you, not everyone loves guns like most people love their mothers!" He instantly realized he'd put his foot in his mouth in a very big way.

Steve shot him a look, but was way too focused on the tasks at hand to say anything about it in the moment. There was always time for those kinds of conversations when they were in the car together, Steve thought.

Getting back on task, he turned to Chin. "Get Duke in here, and work with his men to divide all these people up into small groups and out of the stadium. While you're there, see what you can get from the security cameras, maybe we'll catch someone coming or going that shouldn't have been back there. Keep me in the loop with whatever you learn about the band manager," he tapped his ear bud and Chin nodded. Steve looked at his partner. "Danny and I are going to see the band, but we have to time this just right, or else we'll either piss off the band when they see their audience walking out in a hurry, or-"

"Or we'll scare the audience half to death when we storm the stage to talk to the band." Danny finished for him. He knew the fact that he could finish McGarrett's sentences meant he had definitely spent way too much time so far away from his beloved Jersey. He needed a vacation, he reminded himself as they agreed they'd storm the stage as the stage hands, under direction from Chin, closed the curtains. He dialed Sgt. Lukela's number as Steve and Danny headed for a different branch of the hallway Kono had gone down a few minutes earlier.

Chin found the stadium manager, and they co-ordinated with Duke and HPD as well as Steve and Danny to have the curtains closed seconds before they entered the stage area.

"Hey, Barry! What gives, man?" The lead singer of the band yelled out towards stage left as the curtains closed. It was where the stage hand had been standing only a few minutes earlier, but he person staring back at him now definitely was not Barry the stage hand.

"What gives, man," Steve McGarrett replied, as him and his partner approached the teen idols, "is that someone was killed outside your trailers a little while ago, and we think someone from your crew had something to do with it."

"What's this about then mate?" Another one of the young boys piped up. "You can't think one of us lot did it," he motioned to his band mates. "We've been on this stage for almost two hours, between rehearsing and the start of the show."

"Where is your manager?" Danny asked, approaching another one of the guys.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" a tall, well dressed English man barked as he approached Steve. "And who the hell are you, and who the hell gave you permission to take over my show like that?" he continued to bark directly at Steve.

Steve didn't miss a beat though. "Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, head of the Governor of Hawaii's special task force." he replied in a strong tone as he flashed the man his badge. "And had you taken the call from my team about half an hour ago, you would know exactly what's going on here." He let that sink in for a minute before continuing, although he had no intention of backing down. "Or maybe, you already know exactly what's going on here, Mr. Philips."

"McGarrett, was it?" The man asked, also not backing down. "I assure you, I have no idea what you are talking about." he spat back defensively, his accent becoming even more thick. "And I have a hard time believing that some special task force team would go through all this trouble just to get a guy for a little bit of unpaid taxes," he added.

Steve was about to lay into the man when he heard Kono in his earbud. "Boss, we've got a problem." Was all she said.


	3. Chapter 3

He looked at Danny, knowing he'd heard it too. "Go ahead, I got him," he nodded, glancing quickly to Steve and then back to their sketchy new friend.

He nodded back at his partner, and was gone around through the back of the stage to find the youngest member of his team. "Where are you Kono?" he asked quietly into his bud as he came upon the hallway containing most of the rooms in the behind the scenes area of the stadium.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard crackling and some unfamiliar voices in his ear. "I..I just wanted to meet Layn, he's my favourite member," it was definitely Kono's voice, but she was trying hard to sound like an excited young girl.

Steve could hear enough of the voices around her to know they were male, but that was it. He hoped whatever they were saying, to her, that it meant they bought her story and where going to let her go without incident.

"I'm really sorry I got turned around, sir." Kono spoke again. "I didn't mean to end up near the electrical room, that's for sure." She let out a nervous laugh, really hoping her boss could hear her well enough to get her clue. "Can you point in the direction of their people?" she asked, trying to sound as innocent and unassuming as possible.

Steve still couldn't make out what the other voices were saying, but thankfully, he got Kono's hint loud and clear. "Hold tight, Kono." He whispered. "I'll be there in two minutes." Was the last thing he said before starting to run deeper into the under workings of the very large, expansive building to find her.

He had been searching for a few minutes when he heard her voice again. "Steve," She whispered.

All he could do was hope it was because they'd bought her story and let her leave where she'd come across them. "Who was that?" he asked in a whisper, just in case.

"Some maintenance guys, but I don't think they have anything to do with this." She replied, as she found refuge around a corner from the hallway she'd been down when stopped by the maintenance men.

"Are you sure? Where are you now?" he asked, still walking at a fast pace in search of her. "I just passed the sign that said 'Electrical Room this way'."

"Just keep heading towards the electrical room," she replied, whispering. "I'm around the next corner." Hearing footsteps getting closer, Kono had a wave of relief and fear wash over her at the same time, realizing she didn't know for sure it was her boss. She gripped her gun, hidden under her lose fitting concert tee shirt, just in case it wasn't Steve.

"Hey," they simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief as he rounded the corner and spotted her. "Are you okay?" he asked, automatically.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied. "Steve, the guys I ran into were janitors who just got called in tonight. They were called because the entire maintenance crew that was _supposed_ to be here tonight didn't show up to clock in."

"Probably because they were in on what happened." He concluded, with Kono nodding in agreement.

"I tried asking if they knew where I could find anyone travelling with the band, but they didn't give me anything." She reported. "It's a ghost town around here, I think they may already be gone."

"Mm." Steve mumbled, thinking. "Would they hang the manager out to dry like that though?" He asked, thoughtfully.

"I don't know," she sighed. "But I haven't seen a single other person here, Steve. I cleared quite a few rooms before I got here." She explained. "So if they are still here, they're probably all together somewhere."

"Yeah." He agreed. "This is all the more reason why we need to go about this as carefully, and safely as possible."

"If they're behind this, they're dangerous." Kono reasoned. "And stumbling upon a group like that by ourselves isn't a good idea." She didn't have to worry about that for too long, however because seconds after that, that he heard Danny's voice. "Steve, where are you?" he asked.

"With Kono." He explained quickly. "We're fine, heading back to you now." He whispered, knowing they needed to gather more information before they could go after anyone else.

"You get much out of the band manager yet?" Kono asked, very quietly as they started walking.

"He just admitted tax evasion, but so far that's all we've got to hold him." he said, suddenly whipping his head around to the left. Stopping at another door in that hall, he put his finger up to his lips to silently signal Kono, and then put his ear up to the door very carefully. "You hear those voices?" he asked, whispering. Kono nodded, which lead Steve to give her the signal for 'I'm going in'. She gripped her gun once again and nodded to show she was ready. Steve took a quick breath, and kicked in the door.

"Five 0! Keep your hands where we can see them!" He yelled, as his eyes scanned the room in laser like fashion. Kono followed directly behind him and swept through the two rooms that branched off from that one, gun drawn.

"There's no one here," she said, letting out her breath. Looking at her boss, she realized he had something. "What is it?" she asked, approaching where he was hunched over at a small table in one corner of the room.

"The voices we heard, they're from a CD." he shook his head.

"Okay, this just gets more bizarre by the second." Kono stated, and Steve agreed. "How did every one of them just disappear like that? She questioned.

"I don't know." Steve replied. "But we've got to get an upper hand to get them, that's for sure. I think this guy knows he's on a time limit, so he's doing whatever he can to slow us down." Kono nodded in agreement as he gestured towards the CD player.

"There are way too many entries and exits, and hidden hallways down here," Kono agreed. "It's way too easy to snake your way through here." she finished.

"Yeah." Steve nodded. "Especially if you know exactly what you're doing," he said. "Either we're dealing with some people who know their way around these halls, like the missing maintenance men, or it is guys travelling with the band, and they did their homework planning their escape route."

"So it might not be anybody travelling with the band then," Kono summed up.

Steve shook his head. "We really can't rule anything out until we have more to go on." He said, looking at her once again. "Go find Max and let me know what he has. "He said, walking towards the door. "I'm going to find Chin, see if he got anything from the security cameras," He said as Kono nodded and they both headed out the door to their respective hallways.

Steve made his way back to the front of the stadium. "Chin!" he called, seeing his team member just disappearing around a corner up ahead. Lieutenant Kelly turned around when he heard his boss's voice. "You get anything from the cameras yet?" Steve asked.

"Nothing really useful yet, but I sent some tapes back to the lab with Fong, so hopefully he'll find something that'll give us a better idea of who we're looking for." Chin replied. "Duke's got his men working on talking to everyone now, but so far we don't have anything useful."

Steve nodded. "Whoever's behind this knew their escape plan, and they probably also knew that in a crowd this size, identifying them would be difficult to do." He was starting to get pretty impatient already.

Chin also nodded. "So many people, no one remembers anything specific about anyone else." He agreed. "You guys get anywhere with Philips?" he asked, not realizing Steve and Danny had split up earlier.

"Danny's got him up on the stage now, and he already admitted to some tax evasion, so I'm going to go see what else we can get out of him." he stated. "I sent Kono to find Max, so maybe we'll get something new there."

Chin nodded, as his phone rang. "Yeah, Duke." He answered. "Okay, be right there." He hung up his phone. "Duke's got a group of girls in the office who admitted to sneaking around to the trailers before the show, trying to catch a glimpse of the band for autographs. I'm going to go see if we can get anything from them."

"Sounds like it could be a solid lead," Steve commented. "If they knew they weren't supposed to be back there, they'd be watching their surroundings pretty carefully so they wouldn't be spotted."

Chin nodded in agreement. "Which means they may have seen someone."

Steve nodded and continued. "Judging by how easily the crew seemed to have disappeared through all the halls and rooms at the back of this place, I'm thinking they know their way around the stadium. So one way or another they were familiar with the layout of the stadium."

"The stadium manager mentioned that sometimes bands hire local temp workers to occasionally work these types of events, if the crew needs extra sets of hands. As soon as I talk to those girls I'll head back to HQ and run checks on everyone with a record of working events here." Chin stated.

"Okay." Steve agreed. "See if you can get a schedule or some kind of record of who was supposed to be on clean up tonight. Kono discovered everyone who was supposed to be here tonight is AWOL. They had to call in an entire new shift."

"You still want to look into everyone travelling with them?" Chin asked.

"Yeah." Steve nodded. "We don't have much time, so we can't rule anything out until we know for sure. We can't waste time going down the wrong path, so until we know whether our guy was travelling with them or not, we have to investigate both paths. Plus, the TSA search will give us good background on everyone, so we'll see any red flags that may pop up."

"Okay, I'll see what I can find and get back to you as soon as I can." Chin stated.

"Danny and I are going to talk to Vincent Philips, I'll let you know if we get any names of interest out of him."

"Sounds good." Chin replied. "You've got a plan to get him to talk?" Chin asked, knowing the words 'plan' and 'McGarrett' were one in the same, usually. Unless, of course you were talking about a back up plan.

"Trust me, one way or another, we'll get him to talk." Steve smiled, the wheels in his head already turning on what kind of fun he could have with this one.

Chin smiled and agreed, knowing all about McGarrett's rather unorthodox ways of getting people to tell him information. "Remember, Duke's outside if you need him." he said aloud and then headed back towards the offices once more.

Steve walked back on to the stage to see something he wasn't expecting. His partner had the band manager tied to a chair, holding the cymbals very close to his ear, about to be rubbed together. "If you want to be able to ever hear your precious band, or anything else ever again, I strongly suggest you tell me where your crew is, for the last time!"

"And for the last time, I'm not telling you anything until you show me proof that you can legally hold us here tonight!" he spat back, showing that he wasn't very intimidated by the detective. "We're playing tomorrow night in Hollywood, so I have to get those boys on that damn plane!"

"Danny," Steve said as he approached the men. He couldn't help but let out a little bit of a grin. "Taking a page from my book, I see."

Danny broke his attention from their person of interest to his partner with a sigh. "Well, actually it's because sometimes, I like to be a little bit rock and roll." he teased his friend. "Unlike you, my friend, who I have to say, was very obviously connecting with the messages in the sappy, love songs played this evening."

"Connecting with the messages?" Steve questioned. "What does that even mean?"

"You know," Danny continued. "maybe it's the fact that you share the same emotional level as their target audience, maybe that's what drew you in."

"Oh, that's good, coming from someone as sensitive as you, Danny." Steve replied with a big smile.

"Hey, Sonny and Cher!" The man tied to the chair spoke up, getting tired of hearing the two men bickering. "Are you going to arrest me, or what? I just said I have a band to pack up and get on a flight out of here!"

They both turned to the man, and then back to each other. "Did he just call us..?" Danny trailed off.

"Yeah, he did." Steve replied quickly before walking to the chair and untying the man's arms only to cuff them behind his back. "You're not going anywhere, my friend."

"Hey, I want to speak to my lawyer!" The man barked over his shoulder at Steve.

Steve stopped, and moved the man so they could look at each other face to face. "Is he in England right now?" he asked, receiving a grunt and a nod from the man. "Danny," he asked, not taking his eyes off the man who was quickly becoming their prime suspect. "Mr. Philips here wants to talk to his lawyer; do you have a phone he could use?"

Danny caught on immediately. He had been in these situations with Steve enough to know what his response was going to be. "No I do not. It must be in my other pants. Do you have one he could use, Steven?" he asked as he set the cymbals down on the stage.

Still with his eyes locked into their suspects, Steve replied with a very forceful tone. "No, I don't. And it's a long swim from across the pond. So you better get used to us, Mr. Philips because until we get some answers, you're going to be seeing a whole lot more of us." He turned to Danny and let out the slightest smirk. "Book 'em-"

"If you call me Cher I will crash these cymbals next to _your_ face!" Danny said in a hurry, determined to get his sentence out before Steve finished his.

Steve just continued smiling; completely enjoying the fact that he could rile his partner so easily. "I'm going to see if Kono and Max have anything. Take him to Duke, and then I'll meet you out front." was all he said before handing Mr. Philips over to his partner and walking off the stage towards the hallway once more.

"For the record, he'd be Cher." Danny stated, as he grabbed their perp. "C'mon," he not-so gently pushed the man towards the stairs off the stage and towards the doors that lead to where Sergeant Duke Lukela was waiting.

On his way to meet Kono and Max, Steve's phone rang. "McGarrett." he answered. "Yes, sir." he stopped in his tracks. "Wait, are you saying that-" He was cut off. There weren't many people Steve would tolerate being cut off by, but he would never question the authority of one of his superiors. "How did he-" once again he was interrupted. "With all due respect, Governor, how am I supposed to get to the bottom of this if we-" he was cut off again. Steve could feel his face getting more red by the second. "Yes, sir." he finally spoke again. "I understand, sir." before giving his superior the chance to say anything else, Steve disconnected the call and shoved his phone in his pocket. He practically ran towards the loading area of the stadium.


	4. Chapter 4

"Okay, tell me you got something we can use Max?" Steve asked as he approached the medical examiner just inside the loading docks of the stadium a minute later.

"Well I can conclude that our victim is male, approximately 25-35 years old. I can also confirm that the victim sustained a great deal of electrical shocks before his death." The quirky doctor reported.

"So, what are you saying?" Steve asked. "The shocks aren't what killed him?"

Max shared a look with Kono and then continued. "Although I cannot provide you with an exact COD at the moment Commander McGarrett, I can say with some confidence that these shocks were not actually the cause."

"I need to know if there is any way to tell if he was targeted specifically, or if it was meant for anyone. Or, if it was just an accident." Steve stated, with a definite attitude in his voice. "It's looking less and less like an accident, but that's not my job to rule that out, it's yours, so what _can _you give me, Max?" he was very short, and to the point.

Max tilted his head to the side slightly. "I would hazard an educated guess that, given how much this was meant to look like death by electrocution, it was not an accident. Perhaps that would be a question better asked to the CSU team, however. As it is unlikely that there will be evidence on the body that I will be able to interpret with enough certainty to conclude whether it was an accident or not."

"Okay," Steve replied, slightly confused. "Listen. I just got a call from the governor. He's not allowing us to hold the band's crew for the night, so we need to get as much information as possible, as quickly as possible, Max."

"Wait, what?" Kono interjected. "We don't even have any of them in custody yet, and Denning is saying we can't hold _any _of them here tonight? That's jumping the gun a bit, don't you think?"

"Yeah. It sounds like jumping a very suspicious gun to me." Steve agreed.

"What about the manager?" Kono asked. "Can we at least keep the one guy we do have in custody?"

Steve shook his head. "_Especially _the manager." Steve emphasized. "Somehow, someone on the crew found out we had him, and used their connection to the big name P.R. firms that book these types of events to threaten Denning."

"Threaten him? How?" Kono asked, still confused.

Steve let out an annoyed breath. Not at Kono, but at the situation. "They told Denning that if we didn't let Philips go, he'd make sure Hawaii didn't see another popular touring act til Elvis was proven to be alive, and living on Maui." He couldn't believe how ridiculous it sounded to say that, even though it was word for word what Governor Denning had told him.

"You have got to be kidding me," Kono shook her head. "He's willing to let a potential killer go, if it means he gets to continue keeping his numbers up with young voters by bringing their favourite bands to Hawaii."

"Yeah." Steve confirmed with her. "So, we need everything you have, yesterday," Steve turned to the medical examiner once again.

Max nodded his head. "I understand the sensitive timing of this case, Commander, however-"

"Before the equipment is processed, we have no way of knowing for sure whether he specifically was targeted or not." Steve finished for him, shaking his head.

"Not necessarily," Max replied, with a slight attitude in his voice to rival the SEAL's. He was used to getting that from Detective Williams, so snappy retorts came fairly easily to him. "I find it particularly interesting to note that, the evidence suggests the shocks were delivered very close to time of death."

"So he was electrocuted, and then killed right after? Sounds like someone wasn't having a good time tonight." Kono added.

"Yeah." Steve agreed. "It sounds like either he was the victim of a very unfortunate coincidence in timing, or when our killer figured out the electrocution didn't do it, he had to finish the job another way." he observed.

"Precisely." Max nodded.

"Which means the killer waited nearby, and was able to sneak in and finish it off. So it sounds like he was the intended target." Steve concluded. "We just have no idea why." he continued. "Anything to identify him yet?" The SEAL asked, again very shortly.

"So far, my attempts to recover something identifiable have been unsuccessful, due to this." He turned the deceased man's hand over to show them that his fingers and thumbs had been singed to the first knuckle. "Unfortunately, that isn't the worst part." Max continued as he turned the man's head around to show that his face looked very similar to his hands.

"Oh, gross." Kono commented, putting her hand close to her mouth for a minute. Steve didn't really react though. Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time he'd seen someone in a situation where parts of their limbs had been burned off.

"Okay, we need an I.D. as soon as possible, Max." he reiterated.

"I am transporting our victim to the lab to complete my autopsy now. I'll let you know what I find, Commander." He stood up from where he had been kneeling over the body and took off his gloves.

"Okay thanks, Max." Steve said before turning his attention to Kono. "I'm heading back to HQ with Danny to see what we can get out of the band manager while we still have him."

"You think he's behind all this?" Kono asked.

Steve crossed his arms. "I don't know yet, but I'm getting vibes off this guy that says he's involved in some way, we just gotta figure out how before it's too late." He looked at his watch, thinking about how much time he had to figure out a plan to keep their prime suspect on the island. "Go find Chin and see if you can get that list of locals hired by the stadium to work here tonight. We need ushers, concession stand clerks, everybody that could've accessed this back area. Look closely at anyone who could have electrical knowledge, too."

"You got it, boss." Kono replied, and then disappeared back around the corner of the hallway that lead from the dressing room hallways to the loading docks.

"Why are you sitting over there?" Steve asked his partner, leaning over the driver's side window into the Camaro a few minutes later.

"Wait," Danny laughed. "You're asking me why I'm not driving _my _car?" Danny asked through some more snarky laughter.

"Yeah, I figured since you were going to be getting to the car before me, you'd drive." Steve replied, rationally.

"Tell me, did someone actually crash cymbals next to your head, causing you to experience a temporary loss of brain function?" Danny replied, slightly losing his calm demeanour. "When was the last time we were together in _my _car, and I was the one driving, huh?"

"Danny, only you could somehow put cymbals and driving a car together in one sentence." Steve shook his head slightly as he opened the driver's door and got in.

"Well, it can't be as arbitrary as the idea of me driving my own car, I suppose." Danny replied sarcastically. "Or, as arbitrary as the idea of driving close to the speed limit, at least when you're driving, anyway."

Steve looked at his partner, and without saying a word flipped on the sirens and lights. "Are we really going to do this again, Danny?" Steve asked, clearly annoyed. "I mean, you're trying to make something out of nothing." he shrugged his shoulders. He knew they didn't have time to be distracted by such trivial conversations.

"Yes, Steven." Danny rolled his eyes. "Forgive me, for assuming that driving my own car is out of the question, because as you insist on reminding me, you 'like' to drive!" He couldn't have said that to his friend and partner in a more patronizing tone. "And why did you just flip the lights and sirens? Where are we going?"

"You say I like to drive like it's a bad thing," Steve said, with a completely straight face. "Listen," he continued. "I got a call from Denning back at the stadium. We can't hold Philips, or anyone else for the night."

"Whoa, what the hell does Denning have to do with anything?" Danny asked.

"Popularity, Danny." he replied. "It's all about votes." He gripped the steering wheel even harder than he already was.

"Okay, sure, that goes for any politician, so I ask again, what the hell does Denning have to do with this?" Danny was also getting pretty worked up.

"Somehow, somebody on Philips' crew got wind we had him, and called Denning. If we don't release Philips in time for them to catch their flight off Oahu at midnight, Hawaii will not see a popular music act before Elvis himself comes back." Steve explained.

At first, Danny actually laughed. It took him a few seconds to realize that his partner was actually serious. "Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"We have less than four hours to catch this guy, and we don't have a single lead, is what I'm saying." Steve shook his head as he pulled into their parking lot.

"Something tells me getting this band guy to listen to reason will be easier than the last ten minutes of my life." Danny muttered as he got out of the passenger side.

"What was that?" Steve asked, as they started walking up the path towards the building.

"Nevermind," Danny replied he realized his phone was ringing. "Oh, just what I need right now." He said very sarcastically.

"Rachel?" Steve guessed as they approached the door.

Danny gave him a silent nod as he accepted the call. "Hello, Rachel." He stopped walking, listening to whatever it was his ex-wife wanted. "Uh, you want to say goodnight to Grace?" he gave his partner a whack on the arm to indicate he needed help to think up an excuse, and quickly. "Uh, she had a great time at the concert, by the way." He was trying desperately to stall the conversation. "Yeah, it was great. She laughed at their jokes, she cried to their sappy songs, I cried at the price gauging on the food. A great time was had by all, really." He continued, sending Steve a silent, desperate plea for help. "Yeah, it did let out a little early than most concerts, I guess." He hoped she wouldn't do the math and realize that it had 'let out' barely half an hour into the concert in the first place. He wasn't really fibbing with that line though, he rationalized. "Uh, I guess because it's mostly for kids Grace's age, they don't want it going too late." He looked at his partner again, really hoping he had something.

Like a light bulb suddenly going bright, Steve had an answer. He silently gestured to his partner the universal sign for sleep, and Danny nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, I uh, I just checked on her, and you know, she had such a great time, she was so pooped that she just fell asleep." He kept his face in a scared expression, waiting to hear whether she bought his lie or not. "Yeah," he closed his eyes for a second and let out the breath he'd been holding since delivering his story to her. "Yeah, I'll call you in the morning and she can tell you all about it." He nodded, said bye and disconnected the call.

"Thank you," he said quietly as Steve opened the door.

"No problem, partner." Steve smiled as they walked down the hall. "One question, though."

"What's that?" The detective asked as they went up the stairs.

"What are you going to do when Grace tells her mom that she spent half the night with Kamekona while you chased bad guys away from her favourite band?"

Danny stopped on the stairs. "Well, it was your genius idea to tell her Grace fell asleep, so what do you suggest?"

"What do I suggest?" he repeated. "I don't know Danny, I don't have any experience with ex-wives, so I just threw out the first idea that came to me. I mean, the rest is on you, my friend." Steve clapped his back as he opened the door to their headquarters.

"I stand corrected." Danny shook his head. "Anything, anything at all has to be easier than these last couple conversations with you, Steve. Talking like I'm the crazy, deranged one with the need for control." He wasn't yelling, but there was a definitive frustration in his voice.

"Okay, can we get over the driving thing, please?" Steve asked, even though he knew that Danny's frustrations weren't truly directed at him. "Can we focus on getting what we need out of this guy, Daniel?" The SEAL asked rhetorically, as they walked through.

"Nothing would please me more." Danny replied hastily as the two men walked.

"Cath," Steve said quietly, as he stopped walking to look into his office. He was very surprised to see the petite, dark haired woman he'd grown to really care about over the last few years. She was sitting on his couch, wearing her favourite shirt and jean shorts.

"Wait a minute, I thought she was on a mission somewhere in the Pacific?" Danny inquisited.

"Yeah," Steve replied as he heard his phone ring. "So did I."

Meanwhile, after hearing the music, Lt. Catherine Rollins turned around to see her sailor talking on his phone. She gave a small smile to Danny, who was already looking back at her.

"McGarrett." Steve said into his phone. He nodded a few times, listening to Chin's findings. "What?!" he said, clearly shocked by what he'd just been told. "Can you be sure?" He asked, and then "Yeah, okay." The men said goodbye and hung up. "That was Chin," he explained to Danny. "They found someone on the security cams, hanging around outside the loading docks of the stadium."

"Good, so did they I.D. him?" he asked.

"Yeah." Steve replied in a monotone.

"Well that's excellent news," Danny replied. "So why do you still have that look on your face, the one that says 'what do you mean grenades are out of stock?' Who is this guy?" he asked impatiently.

"Not a guy." Was all Steve said.

"Fine!" Danny said throwing his hands in the air. "Call him a thug, or a low life, or whatever you want, but who the hell is he?!" his patience was running quite thin by this point.

"It was Mary." Steve replied, flatly.


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Danny was sure he'd heard wrong.

"The person Chin found on the security camera feed at the stadium was my sister." he covered his face with his hand for a moment and took a deep breath in. "I didn't even know she was on the island." he continued. Saying that reminded him that Catherine was waiting for him in his office. Letting out his breath, he turned to his partner. "We need to find her, Danny."

"Alright, go see Catherine, and I'll call Mary's cell," Danny offered, giving his friend a light pat on the back. "We'll get to the bottom of this, okay? Don't go all aneurysm face on me just yet."

Steve nodded but continued talking. "Run Philips' financials too. This guy runs the band, I want to see every transaction he's made, and exactly who he's paying for what. At the very least, we can try using his tax evasion for putting a case together for the DA to keep him here.'

"But, Denning.." Danny said to Steve's back as he headed for his office.

"I'll deal with Denning later." was all he said before opening the door. "Hey, Cath." he said, as she stood up. He slipped his hand around her waist and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Hey," she gave him a quick smile as he pulled her into a full on hug after he kissed her cheek. "Is everything okay, Steve? I looked over when you answered your phone and it looked like you tensed up," she observed.

He sighed again, still not having fully digested what their latest revelation could mean. "Yeah," he started. "Well, I don't know yet. It's this case we're working, Cath." He rubbed his hands on his face once more. "We only have a couple hours, or our guy might be on a plane back to the mainland. And," he said, putting his head down, "Mary might be involved with them."

It took a split second for Catherine to see the fear and worry in Steve's eyes. He didn't let down his guard and show his emotions very often, but over the years Cath had picked up on the signs. "Wait, are you sure?"

"Chin's on his way back here now with the tapes so I can give the positive I.D." he said before dropping his head and growing silent. "And, we have a suspect but I'm on orders from Denning to release him in less than four hours." He looked away from her. "If Mary's gotten herself mixed up with these guys, I, I just.." he trailed off.

After a few seconds, Cath placed her hand on the small of his back. "Hey, hey," she said softly, touching his chest ever so slightly with the other hand. He tried to act all tough and rigid, but she knew better than anyone that a little human touch went a long way with Steve. "Mary's a smart girl, Steve. If she's really in trouble, she would come to you, right?"

He let out a sigh, and turned to look at her. "You don't know that, Cath. I don't know that, either." He shook his head and rubbed his hands in his face. "You know she's been arrested in L.A. a couple times, and not to mention that diamond smuggling incident last year." he added.

"Which she was cleared of all involvement, thanks to you. Remember?" She encouraged. "And she did come to you when she really needed it, didn't she?" She kept trying to reason with him, even though she already knew it wouldn't help him much.

"She hasn't even tried calling me, okay." he kept pushing the issue. He turned his head to gaze aimlessly out the window. "I don't know what she's doing for work, where she's living.." he trailed off, suddenly thinking about how it had been months since he last talked to her.

"Well, we don't really know anything yet," Cath once again reasoned. "So try to stay calm, okay?" she moved her hand around his back in comfort.

Steve didn't know what to say, since the last thing he felt at that time was calm. He knew Catherine was doing her best to help him though, so he turned back to her, nodded, and gave her a small smile. "Thanks, Cath." he reached his hand around her waist once more and they shared another tight embrace.

As they loosened their grip on each other, Steve realized he still didn't know why Catherine was on the island. "So, are you okay? I thought you weren't supposed to be back on land for another month?"

"I wasn't," Catherine started, looking down. "But, I decided I needed a little early R&R." She didn't elaborate, and very carefully side swiped his asking if she was okay.

She was also doing what she could to avoid eye contact. "Steve, I know this is a really bad time." she motioned towards the rest of Five 0 outside of the office they were standing in. "You need to focus on this case, and helping Mary," she finally looked up at him. "You know I'll help in any way I can," she offered.

"I, don't understand," Steve replied. He held her arm, very aware that she was trying not to look him in the eye. "Cath, are you sure you're okay? You seem tense too, and early R&R? That doesn't sound like you."

"I'm.." she happened to see Danny walking towards Steve's office and saw it as her opportunity to get out. "We'll talk later, okay?" she tried taking a step towards the door, but realized Steve was still holding her arm. She looked at him and quickly turned back to put her arms around his neck as he wrapped his around her waist. "I'll call you for a night cap, or something?" he through the idea out there with very little confidence in his voice. And it didn't help matters when Catherine barely nodded her reply. "Let me know if I can help with anything with Mary, okay?" she almost whispered, as the door behind them opened.

"Hey, hope I'm not interrupting, but Chin's back and you need to see this." Danny said, sticking his head in a little bit.

In one fell swoop Catherine gave Steve a quick peck on the cheek before letting go of him and saying a quick hello and goodbye to Danny as she left the office.

Seeing the bewildered look on his partner's face, Danny stepped the rest of the way into the room. "Is uh, is she okay? She didn't exactly look like she was thrilled to be here. And after being on a boat for the last three months, although yours isn't the first face I'd choose to see, I would've expected a little more out of Catherine." he said in only a way Danny could.

"First, it's an aircraft carrier." Steve corrected. "And second, I have to find Mary, and we now have barely three hours to solve this case." Did you get her on her cell?"

After taking a second to call himself foolish for thinking he'd get a straight answer about something personal out of Steve, Danny replied.

"I could not get Mary on her cell, and her phone doesn't have a built in GPS, so we don't know where she is, _yet_." He emphasized the 'yet' part, even though he knew Steve would still react strongly to the bad news. "I ran her call history, and nothing seemed out of place. No calls to any area code in Hawaii, either."

Steve looked up to the ceiling, as if it held some sort of answer for him. "Ah, c'mon, Mary!" he slightly raised his voice. "Where are you?"

"Um," Danny continued. "As for Philips' financials, if you look strictly at his bank account, the man could barely afford a dog house in Hawaii."

"What?" Steve stood with his hands on his hips. "How is it that the manager of the world's biggest pop stars does not have any money?"

"Any money _left_, is the catch." Danny explained. "He has crazy, crazy amounts of money going in, and then the exact same amounts going right back out in very short amounts of time. Very poor financial habits, sure, but it doesn't exactly say grounds to somehow, get the governor to agree to keeping him here." Danny finished.

"I think we have to dig deeper, then." Steve looked at his partner. "There is more there, Danny, I'm sure of it. That money has to be going somewhere; we just need to figure out where."

"Yeah, in three hours, I might add." Danny sighed, as they looked up to see Kono walking towards the office door

"Hey," Kono said as she hung up her phone and poked her head in Steve's office. "I think I've got something."

Without another word, the two men filed out of Steve's office and gathered around the smart table as Kono made a sequence of taps. "That was Fong. He said the set of lights left outside the trailer were definitely tampered with, set up to deliver a pretty serious shock to whoever touched them."

"Was it enough to kill?" Danny asked.

"Charlie wasn't sure, so he sent his findings to a colleague in D.C., I'm just waiting to hear back from him." She explained.

"Sounds good so far, did he get anything else?" Steve asked.

"Yeah." Kono continued. "He also pulled a print off the same set of lights, and we got a hit. It came back to Brian Hall, 21. He's got no known address, but he works for a small construction company on the Big Island, Koga House Builders. He's got a couple misdemeanors, but nothing major." Kono slid her fingers across the table and the info appeared on the monitors in front of them.

"Okay, so he's from a different island, and did a little bit of looting. That doesn't exactly say our murder suspect." Danny stated, forever the realist of the group.

"I agree," Kono replied. "It got me thinking though, if he worked for a construction company, maybe he has some knowledge of electrical work. "

"Sounds plausible," Steve agreed. "Have you reached out to Koga to see if they do any electrical yet?"

"Not yet, but I did check his financials, and found a couple things." She slid another image from the table onto the monitors. "First, Hall was cited by the city of Waikiki for some illegal electrical work done at a Honolulu office building a few weeks ago."

"So he has some working knowledge of electrical current." Danny stated. "That's great, but is he our vic, or our killer?"

"Well, the bad news is, we haven't figured that out yet."

"And the good news?" Chin piped up.

"The good news is, we're getting close. I talked to Max before Fong, and he said Brian Hall was being treated for cancer. And, it looks like it was pretty advanced judging by the amounts of chemotherapy drugs he was prescribed. So that should help us figure out if that's him." she gestured towards the M.E. photo that was still on the screen.

"What was the second thing, Kono?" Steve asked.

"According to this account, Hall was being paid pretty large, even sums of money by Koga, so I'm going to call them and ask about that too."

"Good work." Steve praised her. "What did Max say about COD?" Steve asked.

"He still didn't have anything conclusive," Kono explained. But he did say he was surprised that Hall was alive prior to being killed tonight, if he was actually taking all those drugs his doctor prescribed him. I think this one has stumped even Max a little bit." she bit her lip.

"Okay, we should get his photo out to all the hospitals with cancer wards on Oahu and on the Big Island, someone will be able to give us an I.D., whether that's Hall or not." He too looked at the photo of the distorted man's body on the screen.

"I'm on it." Chin stated, typing on the table. "I went through the flight the entire band and crew came over on, and no one fitting this description was on the plane, but we did find this." he slid his fingers on the table so some video footage appeared on the monitors in front of them. "Look familiar?" he asked.

"Yeah, who is she?" Steve asked, sure he recognized the face on the screen from somewhere.

"Dr. Christina Billings," Chin answered. "She's the wife of City of Waikiki counselor Grant Billings."

"Wait a minute," Steve interjected. "Isn't Billings the one who's trying to cut the budget and spending for The Oahu Intergroup?"

"Yeah," Chin nodded typing some more on the table.

"What's the Oahu Intergroup?" Danny asked, as he noticed the articles popping up on the table as Chin continued to type.

"It's a rehabilitation center for women here in Honolulu." Steve explained. "I remember seeing this a couple months ago." He pointed to the article detailing the councilor's plan to cut half the programs offered by the center.

"Yeah, me too." Kono nodded, reading through the article herself.

"Alright, why is she of interest to us?" Steve asked.

"Because she," Chin said swiping the table so more information appeared on the screens, "is Brian Hall's oncologist."

"So she just happened to be flying to Oahu on the same flight as our band on their way to a show, and her patient's prints turn up on some sketchy electrical equipment outside of said show." Danny commented. "So can we officially rule out an accident then?"

"Yeah."Steve nodded. "And we're gonna go talk to Dr. Billings. Do we know where she is now?" he asked.

"Yeah." Chin sighed, looking at all the frustrated faces around the table. "Councilor and Dr. Billings are a couple hours into a flight to Africa for some Doctors Without Borders volunteer work."


End file.
